Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A few months back (mid-August, actually), a reporter from the Los Angeles Times came through the lab to do an article about the Giant Magellan Telescope. After weeks and months, we sort of gave up for a story to appear, but then this morning, I got an unsolicited e-mail from a plaque company wanting to do a custom job for me "on my recent feature article". Switching over to the LA Times page, the article tells the tale of a former Iowa farm boy polishing "more square footage of optics than any human alive"! While bordering on hyperbole, it is downright false in parts, telling how I saved the LBT mirror from failure when the mold sprung a leak in casting. Sort of embarrassing, but haven't gotten too much ribbing from any of the Lab crew, though many have left early for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Unfortunately, the paper is not available in Tucson, though I hear the GMT project is forwarding some copies our way. Ray Bertram, who took the images to go with the story, provided the one shown here, which was on the front page of the Tuesday, 24 November LA Times (!). The image shows Buddy, the project scientist, and me inspecting the surface of the GMT segment. I've even heard from folks far and wide - my former boss e-mailed us this morning after spotting us (he moved to California), and my neighbor's sister called and made a fuss too. Check your watches - 15 minutes!

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All photos are by Dean and Melinda Ketelsen - even the really cool astrophotography ones. Granted, some pics have come from the Internet...such as pictures of actors, or of Miss Tohono O'odham, etc. However, the astronomy pics, as well as the bird pics are all original - compliments of Dean, and sometimes Melinda too! Layout, editing, and continual tweaking (I think they call that "desk top publishing"), well, that would be the work of "I know I can make this better" Melinda!